Jake, Reinvented

“The ladies loved Todd, but not half as much as he loved them. Never mind that Todd had been going out with Didi Ray for over a year now. On a scale of one to ten, Didi was a twelve on a bad day. This sophomore was in the low sevens, tops. But the sophomore was here, and Didi was not. And mostly, Todd was Todd.”

Rick’s initial description of Todd underlines Todd’s selfish and egotistical attitude, as well as his widespread popularity. At this early stage of the novel, Rick views Todd’s infidelities in a lighthearted and nonjudgmental manner, with the lines “Todd was Todd” echoing the “boys will be boys” adage. To some extent Rick appears to share Todd’s objectifying and superficial view of women, rating them on a scale of their physical beauty. This perspective shifts over the course of the narrative, as Rick begins to see the damage that Todd’s selfishness and womanizing can cause to those around him.

“Dipsy was everybody’s friend and nobody’s at the same time. He was kind of a misfit on the guest list since he wasn’t really popular, or on any team or club or anything like that.”

Rick’s description of Dipsy stresses the strict social hierarchy of American high school culture, in which members of various teams and clubs—like the football team—outrank those who aren’t affiliated with such organizations. His comment about the uncertain nature of Dipsy’s friendship applies to many of the novel’s characters, hinting that true friendship is difficult to find amid their shared world of self-interested High School Hedonism. For example, Rick both is and is not Todd’s friend, and Todd and Didi seem to hate each other, even as they remain an inseparable couple.

“He looked like he’d just waltzed off the pages of the J. Crew catalog, or maybe Banana Republic. I mean, nothing he was wearing was all that special—just a plaid shirt, untucked, over a white tee and khakis. But everything went together perfectly, and hung on him with the rumpled casual effect that you can’t get by being casual. This guy worked at it.”

Jake’s entrance into his party underlines the novel’s theme of Appearance Versus Substance by showing Rick’s fixation on Jake’s outer appearance. Rick and the other teenagers are caught up in materialism and status, here exemplified by Jake’s association with clothing brands. Rick’s comment that Jake “worked at it” to appear cool suggests that popularity does not come naturally to Jake. Instead, Jake’s cool-guy appearance is a mask meant to impress his superficial peers.

“‘I trust you, baby,’ he told me, flashing me a look that I was beginning to call the Jake smile. I’m not sure I can totally describe it. At least half of it was paternalistic, like he was a really cool uncle you loved hanging out with. But the other half was pure mischievous fifth-grader—he was the kid you’d partner with to stink-bomb the teachers’ lounge. It was an unbeatable combination because it appealed to your responsible and rebellious sides at the same time.”

To Rick, Jake’s smile captures the two competing pressures of high school culture. The teenagers face pressure from their parents and other adults to be responsible, while they pressure each other to be rebellious: to push the limits and break the rules. Jake’s smile also hints at the two sides of his personality. Secretly, he is smart and responsible, but he puts on the rebellious cool-guy persona to achieve his dream of being with Didi. Rick’s admission that he can’t fully describe Jake’s smile underlines the magnetism of Jake’s personality, while also indicating that Rick isn’t omniscient; his story is always filtered through his own point of view.

“I didn’t have a crush on her—no more than every other male on the planet, anyway. But you have to have a certain amount of respect for something so spectacular, whether it’s the Grand Canyon or a girl.”

Rick’s remarks about Didi’s physical beauty highlight the value that the high schoolers place on Appearance Versus Substance. At this point, Rick doesn’t seem to care much about Didi’s personality, he just cares what she looks like. Like Todd and Jake, Rick risks objectifying Didi, treating her like an inanimate piece of beauty—like the Grand Canyon—rather than a person. Despite her attractiveness, the fact that Rick doesn’t desire Didi for himself indicates that he has a stronger moral sense than some of his peers. Didi is already someone else’s girlfriend, so Rick won’t get involved. Todd, Jake, and Melissa don’t show the same respect for existing romantic relationships.

“But the feeling was the same—in all the world, there was only one place to be, and this was it.”

Rick’s feeling indicates that Jake’s parties are almost magical, capable of transporting the attendees away from their ordinary lives and completely into the carefree world of High School Hedonism. Rick’s hyperbolic comment that Jake’s house is the only place in the world to be hints that he has fallen under Jake’s charismatic spell, seduced like everyone else by Jake’s popular persona. His comments also reinforce the insular nature of high school culture, in which the high schoolers feel like nothing else matters except what goes on between them.

“I felt like kissing someone, okay? If I want to do something, I do it. That’s the way it works now. It’s all about me.”

Jennifer’s comments reveal both the positive and negative aspects of High School Hedonism. Caught up in the carefree joys of youth, Jennifer follows her instincts, wherever they might take her. She hooks up with whoever she wants, not worrying about the repercussions or the future. At the same time, her mantra, “[i]t’s all about me,” indicates that this optimistic and carefree mindset can lead to selfishness. Jennifer’s actions have consequences, in this case hurting Rick, who truly cares about her, but she ignores those consequences in favor of her own impulses.

“He was an absolute star, in his own way, every bit as big as Todd Buckley. After all, most schools had a big-man-on-campus quarterback. But Jake was something that nobody had seen before or ever expected—cool, mysterious, different.”

Rick’s metaphor of Jake and Todd as stars underlines their position at the top of the high school social pyramid, while raising the stakes of their competition for Didi by giving that struggle a larger-than-life aspect. Rick’s critique of Todd and praise for Jake focuses on Appearance Versus Substance. Todd, in Rick’s description, is just a stereotype of a popular jock, interchangeable with any other “big-man-on-campus quarterback” and totally lacking in substance. On the other hand, Rick senses that Jake is “different” because he has more going on beneath the surface.

“If it hadn’t been for Dipsy, I probably would have fallen to pieces in front of my entire high school. I hadn’t done anything before or since to deserve his loyalty. He just saw a guy who needed support, and he gave it. I’d never forget that.”

Dipsy’s support for Rick in his time of need exemplifies the way the characters in the novel mismatch Appearance Versus Substance. The handsome Todd shows his rotten core by betraying Rick and lying to Jennifer, while the ugly Dipsy reveals inner strength by selflessly helping Rick. Rick’s hyperbolic comment about his “entire high school” watching him fall apart reinforces his focus on appearances and popularity.

“Every day I walked through the double doors expecting to hear an excited buzz, like the time Phil Braggett cracked up his old man’s Alfa Romeo and put himself in intensive care. Or the fake-sympathetic delighted whispering when everybody found out that Jerrie Javitz was pregnant—and the even juicier reprise a few weeks later, when they realized that she wasn’t anymore.”

The excited buzz that often fills the halls of F. Scott Fitzgerald High underlines the selfishness and lack of empathy in the school culture. Instead of caring about the consequences of a dangerous car crash or sympathizing with a pregnant peer—who the novel hints has had an abortion—the students instead make fun of what happened, gossiping behind each other’s backs without concern for the real people involved. The euphemism of not being pregnant “anymore” reflects the dangerous nature of gossip, since it relies on innuendo instead of telling a straight truth.

“Around school, I had a reputation as Jake’s best friend, believe it or not. I’d only met the guy two weeks before, but there was something about Jake that made things happen fast. Like his parties, he existed in an accelerated universe…I have to admit I liked it. Jake was famous, so I was sort of famous too. We kickers don’t get a lot of headlines.”

Rick would like to be Jake’s close friend, but he has to qualify their friendship by stating that it is more a matter of “reputation” than reality. Rick’s pride in becoming “famous” emphasizes the importance of social dynamics in high school culture, as well as indicating Rick’s continued jealousy of Todd, who often overshadows him on the football field. Rick continues to struggle with capturing Jake’s magical personality in words, again revealing the limitations of his first-person point of view.

“Some guy was playing tonsil hockey with the captain of the girl’s tennis team. Not far away, a gaggle of his friends had formed a half circle, and were spitting at the back of his neck. From what I could see, they had found the range…He must have been clammy and miserable, but he never stopped for a breath, never gave an inch for fear of letting the girl get away. It was standard issue for a Garrett bash—the kind of semi-funny, semi-moronic stuff that had been going on for weeks in this house. Yet there was something different and vaguely unpleasant about it tonight.”

Rick’s euphemistic description of the boy and girl kissing while his friends spit at the back of his neck exemplifies the High School Hedonism of Jake’s parties. Where before Rick watched similar moments unfold with voyeuristic joy, now something has shifted, marking development in Rick’s character. He has begun to see the damage caused by this sort of recklessness, so now views the moment as disgusting rather than funny. The fact that the boy is miserable, but continues to kiss the girl anyway, stresses his need to maintain a cool outer appearance despite his suffering.

“That was the moment I stopped enjoying Jake’s parties for good. All the madcap silliness just seemed kind of brainless and hurtful. Jake was crazy if he thought it made sense to let two hundred people, half of them total strangers, lay waste to his house. Didi wasn’t worth it. Nothing was.”

This moment marks a turning point for Rick. He used to view Jake’s parties as harmless and silly fun, where he and his classmates could let off steam. Now, however, he has peered beneath the surface to glimpse the immoral and self-serving truth. Rick can no longer see the good side of this behavior; he has gained a newfound sense of morality and propriety. In a sense, he has grown up, leaving them behind.

“What I’d seen in the locker room that day confirmed something I’d always believed: this wasn’t just boys being boys.”

Rick’s thoughts after watching Nelson tear apart the locker room focus on the tenuous line between childhood and adulthood. The novel’s teenagers in some ways still behave like children, but they are now capable of much greater accomplishments, for better or worse. For example, Nelson can cause real harm to those around him with his massive strength. Rick now understands the responsibility that should come from their growth into adulthood. Earlier he excused his classmates’ childish behavior—thinking simply that “Todd was Todd”—but now he understands that their behavior has real consequences; this isn’t “just boys being boys.”

“Our great and exalted quarterback had soured on Jake. Therefore it was only a matter of time before everyone else fell into line. I love high school. It’s a place for individuality to flourish.”

Todd’s ability to sway public opinion against Jake stresses the importance of social hierarchies within the high school. Todd is at the top of the social pyramid, so he wields immense power over what everyone else thinks. Rick’s description of this process is laden with irony, meant to point out the foolishness of people listening to Todd and other popular figures without thinking for themselves. Rick’s increasing use of irony reflects his jaded feelings towards his classmates, whom he now views as petty, fickle, and easily manipulated.

“I knew Jake liked me. But at a certain point out friendship was one-sided, because all he truly cared about was Didi.”

Rick’s honest assessment of his relationship to Jake suggests that true friendship is difficult to find amid a selfish and materialistic culture. Everyone, including Jake, is caught up in their own private agenda, and few seem to genuinely care about how their actions affect others. Jake’s singular American Dream has cost Jake the real friendship he could have had with Rick. Jake has no real friends; he has sacrificed everything to be with Didi.

“This was not social drinking, not even teenage party drinking. And it wasn’t fun anymore, not even crazy fun. It was almost as if they could see the future—that this would be Jake’s final Friday night, and the capital-P Party would soon be over.”

This passage describes the climax of the High School Hedonism encapsulated in Jake’s parties. The focus on alcohol reinforces the idea that the party has gone completely out-of-control, with all sense of fun and enjoyment eclipsed by destructive and dangerous behavior. The reference to drinking foreshadows that the kegs and bottles of champagne will play a big role in upcoming events: the house fire and Nelson’s injury. In a sense, the end of Jake’s parties mirrors the fear of the end of high school and the beginning of adulthood. The partiers are going to extremes now, since soon they will have to become adults and take responsibility for their actions.

“He laughed out loud, completely unconcerned, because that was the way Didi liked him to be.”

Jake’s outer confidence is just a mask that he puts on to impress Didi, stressing the tension of Appearance Versus Substance. His inauthentic behavior shows how much Jake has given up in pursuit of The American Dream. He may be by Didi’s side—at least for now—but he has abandoned his true self by changing to become her perfect man.

“No wonder Jake was so mixed up. Always thinking he had to buy my friendship with fancy lunches or catered breakfasts; feeling he had to have something to offer, like just being himself wasn’t enough. It certainly hadn’t been enough for Didi Ray.”

Rick’s reflections indicate that he has become cynical, viewing the people around him as shallow and materialistic. Jake can’t help but see he and Rick’s relationship as a transaction, rather than a friendship. Jake’s inability to let go of his superficial persona and form a purer connection with Rick suggests that he has lost a part of himself during his reinvention.

“She was the ultimate affirmation, a megaphone blaring: I’m as good as you! Don’t I have the girl of everybody’s fantasies right here in my arms? It must have been enough to erase years of teasing that had surely been directed at an exceptionally bright kid.”

Jake’s romantic feelings for Didi are here clouded by his view of her as a tool for his own social advancement. Rick’s metaphor of Didi as a “megaphone” underlines the way that he and Jake sometimes view Didi as an object rather than as a person. Jake’s motives here are more selfish than romantic, putting in question whether his version of The American Dream is as pure as Rick otherwise believes.

“This wasn’t a crush. It wasn’t even true love. It was total obsession.”

Rick’s epiphany about Jake’s obsession with Didi underlines Jake’s corrupted version of The American Dream. Jake at one point had a true love for Didi, but his extreme efforts to win her heart twisted that love into a single-minded and dangerous obsession. Jake now ignores everything else in pursuit of his one desire, putting himself and the others around him at risk. The epiphany also suggests the imbalanced power dynamics between women and the men who pursue them without considering their desires.

“How many of us ever get the chance to lock away our old lives so we can reinvent ourselves from the ground up?”

Rick here reflects on the elusive promise of The American Dream. Jake’s experience has shown that, in some ways, the American Dream is possible. Through hard work and determination, Jake rose from nothing to the height of popularity and acceptance. However, Jake’s downfall undercuts this success, suggesting that total happiness may be unachievable. By framing Rick’s thoughts as a question, Korman invites the reader to consider their own views about whether reinvention is possible.

“‘They’re crappy people,’ I mumbled in his ear. ‘You’re worth more than the lot of them put together.’”

Rick’s final conversation with Jake—closely modeled on Nick’s last words to Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby—shows that Rick continues to admire Jake, despite his flaws. Jake stooped to underhanded tactics to impress Didi, and his love began to border on dangerous obsession. However, Rick still believes that Jake’s original version of The American Dream was pure, and Rick respects Jake for giving everything he had in pursuit of that dream. Rick’s use of the word “worth” subtly critiques the materialism of his classmates, like Todd and Didi, who care only about what value things have to them.